F1 2010 Errors, Crashes, Freezes and Fixes

F1 2010 Errors, Crashes, Freezes and Fixes

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F1 2010 although faced lot of bugs and game breaking issues, have still scored good reviews all around. Though, they are lot of errors, crashes, graphics and controller compatibility problems that need to be addressed. Good thing is that Coddies are on it, expect an all in one fix patch soon. Meanwhile if you are experiencing any problem playing the game, you can refer to the guide below for solutions.

1# Pit Stop Issue, Pit Limiter Gets Set Automatically
It doesn’t matter what you do in a Practice session, the pit limiter gets set automatically when you enter pits and same with entering pit stall.
Chief Game Designer of the game has this to say about this issue.

Many thanks for the rapid feedback on this. We really appreciate the details and, now that the team are returning from their short holiday, have started an immediate investigation into the cause. Just to clarify that this is most likely a bug with the pit stop release system being overly cautious, which is compounded by the limited pit stop strategy window in short race distances, rather than any form of intentional rubberbanding. Here’s a workaround for now, while we investigate further:

and the workaround is:

Altering Your Race Strategy
By interacting with the ‘Tyre’ stack menu in the garage prior to a race you can adjust your default pit strategy. By making any of the following changes then this problem will be significantly less likely to occur as you will stop yourself from pitting on the same lap as the majority of the AI:

1. Increase or decrease your first pit stop by a lap from the pre-set default

2. Reverse your strategy to start the race on the prime tyres rather than the options, which will allow you to get significantly later in the race before having to make your pit stop (you’ll notice a recommended number of laps for each tyre compound, which will help you determine what lap to make your pit stop). This will require you to alter the both tyres which you start the race on and the pit stop tyres as well as your intended pit stop lap.

3. Alternatively you could also carry on with your default race strategy but choose to ignore the lap where the Race Engineer calls you in and select to pit on the subsequent lap. This is what I tend to do.

Altering Your Race Distance
The more you increase your default race distance up from 20%, the less likely this will occur as the AI will have much larger windows in which to make their stops rather than all coming in on the same lap, as well as the distances between the field becoming much more widely spread.

This issue is almost certainly less likely to be an issue in Multiplayer since the problem’s frequency is a function of how many people are in the pits at once, and your position in the garage line-up.

2# Framerate Issues and Lag on Xbox 360
If you are experiencing sudden frame drops and stuttering while running F1 2010 on Xbox 360, you may want to delete the installation from your HD, and run the game from Disk.

3# Frame Skips, Low FPS, Lag
PC version of the game may be experiencing all this due to a massive replay file, too much data writing occurs on that file causing the lag and frame skips, when you go back to the game after having watched a replay.
You can find the file here.

2. Delete the original replay folder (don’t worry) and create a symbolic link with the name “replay” in that same directory. It will re-create a folder called replay (that’s why you delete the original one first) but this time it will be a link.

3. Create as a “Junction”, because it’s implemented directly in the file system, so you have best performance.

To all applications and to explorer itself, it will look like a regular folder, you won’t be “redirected” to the target one, but any file you copy inside it will also appear in the target (if not, then there’s something wrong with the junction).

Windows Vista/Windows 7Thanks @n1x1n for the suggestion.

1. Delete original replay folder (and file) by exploring to

ProgramData\Codemasters\FormulaOne\DataCache\yourc omputersname\

2. Open Command Prompt with admin privileges (search ‘cmd’ and right click on cmd.exe and select ‘Run as Administrator’)

3. Use mklink to create the symbolic link. Edit it according to your own game directory location.

4. When launching the game, the 2GB replay.pbf file will be written to the file location you have specified. If you write this file to another hard drive, resources are freed up for your OS and game performance will increase.

Alternate Fix Thanks @ Mark in comments for Tip.
Go to the My F1 screen and then “Audio” and change the default Rapture setting to Software.

3# F1 2010 Windowed After ALT-TAB
If you alt-tabbed out of the game and when tried to get back in the game, ended up with the game in windowed mode. Press ALT+Enter to get the game in full screen again.

4# Error Launching Game D3DCompiler_42.dll Missing
If you face this error while launching F1 2010, re-install your DirectX, better if you install DirectX version that comes with the game.

5# Not Able to Edit Wheel Settings/ Control Settings Greyed Out
Few of the players are experiencing the in-ability to set the settings of their wheel controller to custom/advanced or enable to properly edit them. You can read the workaround below to see what you are missing, sent in by the F1 2010 support team in an email to a player experiencing the same issue.

A) From the game’s paddock area go outside and select “My F1” then “Driving Controls”

B) Whilst “Control Profile” is selected use the arrow (cursor) keys on your keyboard to change from the “Keyboard” option to your controller. If you have one of the following controllers it will be automatically recognised:

Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller

Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel

Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel with Force Feedback

Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo / Turbo S / GT3 RS Wheel

Logitech Dual Action

Logitech MOMO Racing

Logitech MOMO Force

Logitech G25 Racing Wheel

Logitech G27 Racing Wheel

Logitech Rumble Pad 2

Logitech Cordless Rumble Pad 2

Logitech Driving Force GT

Thrustmaster RGT Force Feedback Clutch Edition

Thrustmaster Ferrari 430 Force Feedback Racing Wheel

C) If your controller is not recognised or you wish to use a different control layout choose the “Custom” option under “Control Profile” and then select “Edit Setup”

D) To configure your controller in the “Edit Setup” screen do as follows:
1. Press Enter on the game action that you want to configure, and “Waiting” will appear. This shows that the game is waiting for you to input the controller action that you want.
2. Perform the appropriate controller action (e.g. press the accelerator) and it will appear in place of “Waiting”.
3. Repeat the above steps for all the actions you want to set up.
4. When you’re finished back out (with Escape)
5. Your profile should be saved and your controller should now work in the game.

For an explanation of the Advanced Wheel Settings and the Force Feedback options, please see the readme.

6# Logitech Driving Force Pro Wheel Fix
F1 2010 does detect your Logitech Driving Force Pro, but by default it does not assign the Car Status or Request Pit to buttons. If you do a custom edit to fix the above issues, then you lose your ability navigate the menus with the D-pad. So how to fix this ? Quirkitized @2k Forums has this “Logitech Driving Force Pro Wheel Fix” to say.

7# F1 2010 Graphic Issues
Highend PC ? Crossfire or SLI ?. You may have all the specs to run the game on high settings but still may be unable to play the game high quality. Texture seems to be low quality, for people on Crossfire and SLI. May be the game doesn’t support it, so try running it on a single GPU and see if it helps.

8# Xbox 360 Game Save Bug
Few of the players were unable to load their saved games while playing F1 2010 on Xbox 360. Search around a lot but no fix yet, if you find anything that can fix this problem, share with us.

Readme FAQS Which You Didn’t Bother to Read!

9# The game won’t install!
If you find that you are getting ‘file not found’ errors (or other similar messages) during installation, it may be that your DVD drive is malfunctioning. There are several simple tests you can perform to verify this:

If any of the above tests succeed, then it is highly probable that there is an issue with your DVD drive. Such problems may not manifest themselves with all discs, so even if other games appear to install correctly then this may still be the case.

To install or uninstall the game you will need administrative privileges within Windows. On Windows Vista, simply enter the administrator password if and when you are prompted for it. On Windows XP, log on as an administrator before running Setup.

10# The game won’t launch under Windows Vista
If the game fails to launch after installing on a Windows Vista based PC, this may be due to the “Games for Windows – LIVE” client failing to install correctly. To remedy this, reboot your PC and then run the installation program (setup.exe) found on the game disc. Choose the “Repair” option after doing so.

11# I changed my Graphics Settings – now the game won’t boot!
If you changed your graphics settings and now can’t get into the game – don’t panic! This can occur if you enable an option unsupported by your graphics card, or set the resolution beyond what can be handled by your monitor.

F1 2010 includes a ‘Safe Mode’ to help under such circumstances, which can either be run using the shortcut under the start menu in Windows XP, or by right-clicking the game in the Games Explorer in Windows Vista, or else by launching the game using the ‘-safemode’ parameter.

Safe Mode will simply boot the game using the lowest possible resolution and graphics settings. Alternatively, simply delete the hardware_settings_config.xml file, and the game will generate a new one the next time it is run.

12# Visible shearing/tearing
You may experience tearing across the picture. This can be avoided by turning on ‘VSync’ which is available from the advanced graphical options menu. Please note that this may reduce the performance of the game, and so is disabled by default.

13# Poor frame-rate
F1 2010 has been designed with multi-core processors in mind, and you’ll require two or more cores in order for the game to be playable. If you are running in Vista, the game may also require a larger amount of RAM than if you were running in XP.

If the game runs at an unsatisfactory framerate, try turning down/off some graphics systems from the graphics options menu. Mirrors and Wind Effects can both be disabled for a significant performance increase with little loss in visual fidelity.

More advanced users may want to tweak the settings in the hardware_settings_config xml file, located in your savegame directory. Turning down the shadow mask quality to 0 has been found to provide good framerate improvements for those with older graphics cards.

14# The game looks stretched/squashed!
Check that the aspect ratio and resolution settings that you are using are supported by and are applicable to the monitor you are using.

15# Graphical Corruption!
Using extremely high resolutions on graphics cards that aren’t up to it may result in graphical corruption. To fix this try lowering graphical detail or running the game in safemode as described above.

16# Can’t accelerate properly with a racing wheel
Make sure the wheel is not set up to use a combined axis. See the Controllers section above for info.

17# Problems joining/creating network sessions
If you are running a Firewall, ensure it is set to allow the game to communicate on the following ports for both inbound and outbound traffic:

TCP and UDP port 3074

18# The rear speakers are not playing
Switch your speaker configuration from stereo to surround in the Windows Control Panel. F1 2010 supports 5.1 surround in ‘generic software’ mode, and both 5.1 and 7.1 with OpenAL X-Fi hardware acceleration or via the default Rapture3D driver. You must restart the game to hear the effect of changes to the PC speaker configuration.

19# The side speakers are not playing
The software mixer supports up to 5.1 channel surround. For 7.1 surround, with two extra speakers, select “hardware” with a suitable set-up (e.g. X-Fi with current OpenAL drivers) or “Rapture3D”.

Set the number of speakers in Windows Control Panel and then customise it, if you wish, with the additional options in the Creative Labs and Rapture3D speaker layout applications.

The hardware option only appears in the game sound menu if your system reports suitable capability (e.g. 100+ voices, high quality filters and reverb) and is in ‘Game Mode’.

There is a known problem with ASUS Xonar cards, and obsolete X-Fi drivers may also show problems. While hardware accelerated audio support remains an available option, the new Rapture3D driver is capable of matching or surpassing the performance of dedicated audio DSP on modern PCs, and is the generally preferred configuration.

21# Poor Online Performance
If you notice opponents’ cars ‘jumping’ around during online races, this may be caused by your low frame rate. Try turning down some of the graphics options for a better frame rate, and the improved performance may reduce this problem.

22# Game doesn’t run when USB headset is connected
The game may fail to run with some combinations of sound card and USB headset. This can be rectified by;

25# Save File Corruption Fix
1. Copy the corrupt My Games\F1 2010 folder to a safe place.
2. Start the game and created a new profile, overwriting the corrupt one.
3. Quit the game and create a backup of the new, clean My Games\F1 2010 folder.
4. Copy all my original files and folders back to the newly created My Games\F1 2010 folder. Run the game, which didn’t complain about any corruption. So far so good, but the game is still at the beginning.
5. Copy half of the files from your Autosave0 folder to My Games\F1 2010. Run the game to check for corruption. If everything is OK, copy in half of the remaining files and so on. If there were problems, restore the clean data files created at step 3. The idea is just to go through a process of elimination to find the bad file.

Now if you somehow find the corrupted file, see if you can replace it, and see deleting it has what impact on the game. If your saved data is un-effected by deleting than go ahead and delete it. Once your corrupted saved files are restored, save the game after playing a race so that you can create a new fresh save file.This workaround was used for the same issue with Dirt 2 so theory applies.

26# How to Create an Offline Games For Windows Live Account to Save Progress of F1 2010
F1 2010 is a Games For Windows Live (GFWL) based title and you need access to a GFWL account in order to save game progress. Unlike old times, where you were granted an option to create an offline profile locally, this game doesn’t give you this option while creating your profile.

Or I should say, the option to create an offline profile in F1 2010 to save progress on your local machine is hidden. So, how to save progress and create offline GFWL profile for F1 2010 ? read below.

Step 1
Launch the game. Open the Windows Live menu or it will pop-up automatically when you start the game.

Step 2
A)If you are not logged into any GFWL profile continue to step 3.
B) If you are already logged into a profile and unable to save progress then log-out of that profile and now create new profile buttom will become visible.

Step 3
Click on ‘Create new profile’ button.

Step 4
In the dialog box that pops up DO NOT hit continue. Hitting continue will take you to a registration page for an online profile – which you obviously don’t want as you want to create an offline profile.

Step 5
Once in the ‘Create Gamer Profile’ window, scroll down so that you can see the bottom paragraph.

Step 6
Look for the hyperlinked ‘create a local profile’ link in last paragraph. Click it to create a new offline profile to save progress of F1 2010 locally. Thanks @ Filenetworks Blog for the tip.

27# Fix to Game Crashes Errors When Loading Race in F1 2010
Started a new Career, played practice, qualifying rounds and just when you were about to race, the game crashed, leaving you with a stuck circle on the top of your screen. Now fix is a bit tricky and includes editing the game files, adding a bit of code. So, please be careful and better back up everything before you proceed.

FixThanks @snoop1050 for tip.
Go to your “F1 2010/system” and folder find the file “hardware_settings_restrictions.xml”, right click it and select edit. Now you need to delete everything between “” all the down to cpu closing tag “” and put the code below in place.

Actually the problem is, game fails to recognize the whether your processor is 3-core or 6-core cpu and hangs. Game may not work-at-all for some simply for this reason. Hence this workaround forces the game to work in 4-cores.

Now if you have a six core processor, and you feel 2-cores are simply being wasted, you can also try the workaround below suggested by @ duk3r.

Fix
Go to your F1 2010/system/ folder and find the file “hardware_settings_restrictions.xml”. Open it with notepad and you will notice that there are some settings for each of the core files. Go between the 4 and 8 core settings and put these lines.

Save and close the file, now the game can properly work in 6 core processors. Let it be me, I am entirely confident with the second fix, so give a try to first before you move to second and be sure to back up before you proceed. Anything fucked up here, and you will have to reinstall your game.

Or if these two workarounds, scare you off, then please follow what kerstin has suggested in comments.

Fix
De-activate 2 cores: Run “msconfig”, advanced settings, boot with 4 cores and this hopefully will resolve your issue.If it does, be sure to thank the guy.

28# F1 2010 Annoying Sound Problems, Weird Noise
Annoying crackling noise in the game making it almost impossible to hear the women at the start of the game and the car engines sound really bad for you. Well, you can give following workaround a try.

Fix
1. Run the game at least once in order to create a savegame-profile.
2. Exit the game.
3. Locate the file “hardware_settings_config.xml”.You may find it here:

“\My documents\My Games\FormulaOne\hardwaresettings”

4. Open it with wordpad.
5. locate the <audio card> section and make it look like the following:

6. Save and exit.
7. Locate the file “hardware_settings_info.xml” (it is in the same folder as the above file).
8. Open it with wordpad.
9. Locate the <audio card> section (near the bottom of the file)
and make it look like following: